Wyandotte County KS

Biography of Leonard V. McKee

Leonard V. McKee. The life, the personal character and the influence of Leonard V. McKee impressed themselves strongly upon the formative period of Marshall County’s history. He was founder and president of the Frankfort State Bank, was a large land owner and one of the leading business men and citizens of the community. He was born in Allen County, Ohio, August 18, 1845, and died at his home in Frankfort, Kansas, December 22, 1916, aged seventy-one years, four months and four days. His parents, Robert and Sarah (Dunlap) McKee, were both natives of Ohio. His father was a cabinet maker … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Mary C. Bezion

One of the pioneer citizens of Nowata county is Mrs. Mary C. Bezion, residing on her farm two miles southwest of Delaware, hale and hearty at the age of seventy-three years. A native of Kansas, she was born in Wyandotte county, on the 14th of April, 1849, a daughter of Jim and Nancy (Washington) Secondine. Her father, who was chief of the Delaware, was born in Ohio. He was with General Fremont during the Mexican war and his picture has been preserved in the archives at Washington, D. C. Mrs. Bezion was but fourteen years of age when her father … Read more

Biography of Arthur W. Bronson

For the past seventeen years a resident of Topeka, Mr. Bronson has been a considerable factor in the material prosperity of the state, particularly in connection with the agricultural interests. As resident agent for a firm of foreign capitalists, he has been instrumental during his time in handling and distributing over $25,000,000 cash to the land owners and farmers of Kansas and adjoining states, and he is perhaps as well informed as any man in the state on the subject of agricultural credit, land values and farming interests from the financial standpoint. A native of Herkimer County, New York, where … Read more

Biography of Wylie White Cook

Wylie White Cook. During a period of more than thirty years, Hon. Wylie White Cook has been almost constantly before the people of Kansas as the incumbent of public positions, and that he still retains in marked degree the confidence and respect of Kansans is evidence of his worth, fidelity and integrity, for the duties of the various offices which he has held have in nearly every case directly affected the welfare of the community. In Mr. Cook’s case it has almost invariably been a case of the office seeking the man, for with but one exception in his long … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Vincent J. Lane

Vincent J. Lane, the veteran of the newspaper profession in Kansas and a leading citizen of Wyandotte County in every way, was born at West Middleton, Washington County, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of January, 1828, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (McKeever) Lane, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania, of English lineage, and the latter of whom was born in Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The parents continued to reside in Washington County, Pennsylvania, until the close of their lives, and there, in the early days, the father was a manufacturer of furniture at a time when … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Timothy D. Thacher

Timothy D. Thacher, a prominent editor and public man of Lawrence and Kansas City, was born in New York, October 31, 1831, of that famous Boston family, whose American founder was Rev. Thomas Thacher, pastor of the Old South Church. He graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York, in 1856, and campaigned that year on the platform of the new republican party. In April, 1857, he came to Lawrence and began the publication of the Lawrence Republican, a free-state paper which figured prominently in state politics. He was a member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention held in the wintor … Read more

Biography of J. Edgar Buffington

J. Edgar Buffington, a representative of an honored pioneer family of Oklahoma, figures prominently in financial circles of northeastern Oklahoma as President of the Vinita National Bank, in which connection he is controlling one of the most substantial moneyed institutions in this part of the state. He was born in that portion of Indian Territory known as the Cherokee Nation, on the 13th of March, 1881, of the union of Ezekiel and Anna (Scarcewater) Buffington and when but an infant lost both of his parents. His boyhood was spent as an inmate of the Cherokee Orphans’ Home at Salina, in … Read more

Biography of Matthew Edgar Pearson

Matthew Edgar Pearson is serving his fifteenth consecutive year as superintendent of the public schools of Kansas City, Kansas. He began his work in the schools of this city thirty years ago, and no one individual had so intimate a knowledge of the actual growth and development of the local school system and had done more to improve its efficiency than the Pearsons. He is one of the best known and oldest educators in the State of Kansas. Mr. Pearson was born at Plainsfield in Hendricks County, Indiana, March 8, 1862, but had lived in Kansas since he was ten … Read more

Biography of George Rushton

George Rushton. The George Rushton Baking Company, Incorporated, at Rosedale, is the largest concern of its kind in the State of Kansas. Every day its ovens turn out 20,000 loaves of high class bread, sold and consumed principally in the two Kansas cities, while the weekly capacity of the pie plant is 75,000 pies. It is the only pie baking plant on a large scale in the two cities. Baking had been a trade in the Rushton family for so many generations back that no record had been kept of the originator of the business. The president and founder of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of S. T. Blades, M. D.

S. T. Blades, M. D. The problems of health are really the problems of life and must pertain to all questions of human interest. Useless is wealth or station and vain are great achievements if good health is lacking. Thus comes the great value placed on the services of that body of noble men who have dedicated their lives to the healing art. The most necessary resident in any community is the physician, although he probably is never fully appreciated and seldom does he claim any foremost place, although his usefulness entitles him to it. Among the well known medical … Read more

Biography of Holmes Dysinger, Rev.

Rev. Holmes Dysinger has for the past twelve years been connected with the Western Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church at Atchison, and since 1910 had been dean of the seminary. He had spent more than thirty years in the work of the church as a minister and as an educator, and had been connected with prominent schools and pastorates in nearly all parts of the country. Mr. Dysinger is of an old Pennsylvania family and was born at Mifflin, that state, March 26, 1853. The Dysingers’ original home was in Southern Germany. They came across the ocean and settled … Read more

Biography of Austin H. Jennings

Austin H. Jennings. For many years the name of Jennings has been honorably associated with business enterprises of importance in Kansas City, through the efforts of Austin H. Jennings, who is president of the Crystal Springs Ice, Fuel & Grain Company and is interested in other concerns that occupy a prominent place in the commercial field. Although not quite so active as in earlier years, Mr. Jennings continues one of the most stable and dependable of the city’s business men and one of the most reputable and highly esteemed citizens. Mr. Jennings was born May 25, 1850, on a farm … Read more

Biography of Martin Van Buren Cagney

Martin Van Buren Cagney, whose home had been in Emporia for the past thirty years, is an old time printer, having first taken up the art of typography when a boy before the Civil war, and had followed his trade under many changing conditions and in many localities. For many years he had been proprietor of a commercial printing establishment at Emporia, and had also been frequently honored with positions of trust and responsibility in that city. His own career had the interest of much variety and he belongs to an interesting family. His father Maurice Cagney was born in … Read more

Biography of Ira Puderbaugh, M.D.

Ira Puderbaugh, M. D. The second physician in practice at Ozawkis was Dr. Aaron Puderbaugh, and in that same locality his son Dr. Ira Puderbaugh had handled the bulk of the professional work for the past fifteen years. Ozawkie is the native town of Dr. Ira Puderbaugh, where he was born March 5, 1878. His ancestors were Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania in very early times. His grandfather was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, afterwards moved to Western Ohio, from there to Indiana, and finally came to Kansas, where be lived retired until his death at Ozawkie in 1883. Dr. Aaron … Read more

Biography of Albert Julius Holzmark

Albert Julius Holzmark. The career of the late Albert Julius Holzmark in Kansas City, Kansas, left its impress upon many forms of business activity, upon institutions of a civic, social and religious nature, and upon the lives of a great many individuals. He was a man of the highest character, of unexampled business integrity, was successful and made his success count toward the forwarding of the good of a large community. His life was one of achievement from small beginnings. He was born in Koenigsburg, Germany, April 22, 1867, the oldest of the three children of Isidor and Theresa Holzmark. … Read more

Biography of Albert James Herrod

Albert James Herrod in 1916 was elected judge of the District Court of Wyandotte County for the short term of forty days in Division 3. He had the distinction of being the youngest judge in the state at the present time, and his attainments and ability give promise of a large career of usefulness for the future. Judge Herrod was born at Newark, England, April 14, 1885. He was the fourth in a family of five children, three boys and two girls, born to Walter and Catherine (Taylor) Herrod. His grandfather John Herrod was a successful English maltster and also … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Patrick McInerney, Rev.

Rev. Patrick McInerney is pastor of the Assumption Catholic Church of Topeka. Reared and trained for the duties of the priesthood abroad, he has been in the ministry of the church in America for the past eighteen years, and all that time has been spent in Kansas. He is an able priest, devoted to the cause, and has an important record of constructive work in the various parishes where he has served. One of the eleven children of Patrick and Bridget (Purcell) McInerney, he was born in Ireland March 6, 1876. He attended the local schools of Ireland and the … Read more

Biography of John Thomas Sims

John Thomas Sims, who many years ago secured prestige as one of the most forcible lawyers of the Kansas City, Kansas, bar and is now serving as judge of the Probate Court of Wyandotte County has had his share of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. His early life was one of hard and continuous work, often ill repaid, and again and again overtaken with calamity or disaster. He tried farming in the early days of Kansas, and various other occupations, and again and again when prosperity seemed to smile upon him he was put back at the beginning … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Rufus E. Cable

Rufus E. Cable was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He came to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1856, and was employed as a clerk in the establishment of W. E. Proctor, who was the proprietor of a general store. The store of Mr. Proctor and all other business houses in Kansas City, Missouri, were at that time on the levee along the south bank of the Missouri River. The residences were scattered about on the hills back of the business houses. At that time M. J. Payne was mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Cable in 1865 moved to Wyandotte, now Kansas … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Green

Charles W. Green, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, since March, 1893, was born in Grcene County, New York, July 1, 1868, son of Charles and Avesta (Wright) Green. His father was a farmer and a veteran of the Union army. He was educated in public schools, in Greenville Academy and Eastman’s Business College. After some experience as a grocery clerk and in real estate and insurance lines he went west in 1891 to Colorado, was connected two years with a smelting company, and on coming to Argentine, now part of Kansas City, Kansas, had charge of the copper department … Read more